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232 CRADLE TALES OF HINDUISM rather set Himself calmly and cheerfully to make the path of events easy. He sent heralds there- fore throughout the city, to command the Vrishnis to make a pilgrimage to the sea-coast, there to bathe in the sacred waters of the Ocean.

The command agreed well with the feeling of the nobles themselves, that they would do wisely, as a people, to appoint an occasion of public devotion and sacrifice^ by which to avert the divine anger threatening them. Preparations were immediately begun, therefore, for the journey of the great knights, and all their households and retainers, to the sea-side. This could not be done without laying in large supplies of all kinds of provisions. And now also came the opportunity to break the command of Ugrasena, and the self- restraining ordinance of the whole city. Great stores of wines and spirits were made ready, along with all kinds of costly meats and other viands, and the vast procession, with its carriages and elephants and horses, and its contingents of servants journeying on foot, was organised for the march. Little did these turbulent warriors, heads of powerful houses, and skilled in the wielding of sword and bow, suspect that their time was come 1 Only the Lord Krishna, of infinite energy, knew the character of the hour and stood unmoved.

The coast was reached, the place of encampment chosen, and tents were pitched. But then,